The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
“You are going to be
the Abraham Lincoln of
the Indians”
The Wisconsin Oneida, John Collier, and the Indian New Deal
S. T. Hilger
Senior History Thesis
Spring 2007
Dr. Oberly
Dedicated to the Memory of Provost Ronald Satz;
A man I aspire to emulate both academically and personally.
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Table of Contents
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 3-6
From New York to Wisconsin............................................................................................. 6-12
The Age of Allotment ...................................................................................................... 12-18
The “Roaring Twenties” and the Great Depression ........................................................... 18-22
The Appointment of John Collier ..................................................................................... 22-26
The Hayward Indian Congress ......................................................................................... 26-32
The Creation of the Indian Reorganization Act and Indian New Deal................................. 32-37
Results on the Oneida Reservation .................................................................................. 37-45
World War II, the Demise of the Indian New Deal ............................................................ 45-50
Final Remarks ................................................................................................................. 50-54
Sources Consulted........................................................................................................... 55-57
Appendix ........................................................................................................................ 58-61
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“In behalf of the Oneida Indians I will tell a little story which best tells how we
felt toward the United States. A farmer went up to see the president of the last
administration and the president asked him to lunch. The farmer accepted the
invitation and went to lunch with the president. While they were eating the
president stepped out and a little while later came back and saw the farmer’s
plate empty. Another course was ordered and the president stepped out again.
When he came back the plate was empty again. “My what an appetite you’ve
got,” the president said, “I wish I had it.” When the farmer returned to his home
he told about it. He said: “The president took everything we had. Took our stock,
our land, our machinery, and now he wants my appetite!” Chief William
Skenadore1
Chief Skenadore’s joke delivered at the Hayward Indian Congress was meant to
have the resounding effect of humor on the other delegates in attendance. Yet under
the initial level of humor, the joke expressed an ominous truth which had cursed the
Oneida Indians for over one-hundred years by 1934; interaction with the government of
the United States. Through the signing of treaties and the heeding the government’s
advice the Oneida Indians had watched their lifestyle dramatically shift; from a lifestyle
of freely hunting and gathering on millions of acres of what became New York State, to
being constrained to living on a reservation with little economic opportunity. Like the
farmer in Chief Skenadore’s joke, the Wisconsin Oneidas had seen the United States
take their land and traditional way of life, leaving them in a dire economic condition by
the 1920s.
This paper tells the story of the relationship between the Oneida Indians of
Wisconsin and an introverted archeologist from Atlanta, Georgia named John Collier.
The backdrop of this story takes place during the most difficult economic time of the
1
U.S. Department Of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Testimony of Chief William Skenadore
At Hayward Wisconsin, April 24, 1934.
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twentieth century in American History, the Great Depression. With the election of
President Roosevelt, John Collier became the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The
innovative Collier brought new ideas to reform the manner in which American Indians
lived and interacted with the United States government. Collier’s idea later became
known as the Indian Reorganization Act. The Indian Reorganization Act dramatically
altered the life of the Wisconsin Oneidas, and signified a new era in relations between
the United States government and the American Indian tribes.2
The Oneida Indian Tribe, along with the Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Tuscarora,
and Seneca comprise the Six Nations, commonly referred to as the Iroquois
Confederation. The Six Nations of the Iroquois traditionally reside in the territories of
the Northeast United States. While there has been substantive academic writing on the
Iroquois of the Northeast United States, little academic coverage has been granted to
the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin. Like a superfluous little brother, the Oneida Indians of
Wisconsin, geographically alienated from their tribal relatives have received little
academic attention.
Historian Laurence Hauptman is the leading academic scholar on the Oneida
Indians of Wisconsin. Hauptman has published numerous books and articles on the
Iroquois and has included the Oneida Indians of Wisconsin within the auspices of his
writings. In the Iroquois and the New Deal, Hauptman wrote a chapter on the effects of
the WPA Writers Project on the Oneida Reservation. Hauptman has also collaborated
2
The Indian Reorganization Act is often referred to under different names. The Indian Reorganization Act
refers to legislation passed by Congress in 1934, different from the Indian New Deal which refers to the
collective social welfare programs of the New Deal which benefited American Indians. The Indian
Reorganization Act is also referred to as the Wheeler-Howard Bill, its official title in Congress.
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with Historian Jack Campisi and Gordon McLester to edit two unique historic books.
These books include personal accounts of Oneida Indians in addition to academic
scholarship on the history of the Oneida Indians. Both The Oneida Indian Experience:
Two Perspectives, and The Oneida Indian Journey; From New York to Wisconsin; 17841860, are valuable accounts that grant the reader a more expansive comprehension of
Oneida History because of the different perspectives presented in the books.
There is an abundance of academic writing on the creation and application of the
Indian New Deal. Historian Kenneth Philp’s book John Collier’s Crusade for Indian
Reform provides an excellent account of Commissioner Collier’s personal life and Indian
New Deal. Graham Taylor’s The New Deal and American Indian Tribalism: The
Administration of the Indian Reorganization Act, 1934-1945, describes in detail the
effect of the Indian Reorganization Act on American Indian tribes on a national level. In
addition, Taylor’s work also accounts for the political history of the Indian
Reorganization Act.
This paper seeks to accomplish two goals. First, this paper seeks to investigate
the effects that the Indian New Deal and Indian Reorganization Act produced on the
wellbeing and lifestyle of the Oneida Indians of Wisconsin. Second, this paper contends
that the Indian Reorganization Act was a compelling milestone in the relationship
between the government of the United States and the American Indian tribes.
To accomplish these goals, this paper is organized into four parts. First, this
paper will investigate the history of the problems that had befallen the Wisconsin
Oneida Indians until 1934, the year that the Indian Reorganization Act was enacted.
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Second, the political history of the Indian New Deal and Indian Reorganization Act will
be presented. Third, the effects of the Indian New Deal and the Indian Reorganization
Act on the Oneida Indian tribe will be analyzed. Finally, this paper will conclude by
deeming the significance of the Indian Reorganization Act on the Wisconsin Oneida
Indians. In addition, this paper will judge the role of the Indian Reorganization Act in
reforming the relationship between the American Indians and the United States
Government.
From New York to Wisconsin
The plans of European Americans to move their Oneida neighbors from their
provincial home of central New York State began to materialize in the early nineteenth
century. Numerous societal motors spurred the relocation effort of the Oneidas of New
York. In the early nineteenth century population pressures increased the desire to
obtain Indian lands in New York State. Waves of European immigrants spurred the size
of New York’s Population. The New York Population grew from 589,051 in 1800, to
1,372,813 in 1820, adding further demand for farmland in the New York countryside.3
The state of New York had granted the right of preemption to private land
companies, whose ownerships were eager to reap the land and timber rights they held
of Indian Territory currently occupied by the Oneida Indians.4 In 1810 seeking timber to
harvest, David Ogden purchased the pre-emptive right to the land of the Indian
3
Reginald Horsman. “The Origins of Oneida Removal to Wisconsin, 1815-1822.” The Oneida Indian
Journey. eds. Laurence M. Hauptman and L. Gordon McLester III. (Madison, Wisconsin: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1999), 55.
4
Ibid.
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reservations from the Holland Land Company for the price of “fifty cents an acre.” The
Holland Land Company had little success in gaining access to Indian land, yet the
ambitious Ogden created a new plan to remove the Indians from the territory he sought
to harvest. Ogden aspired to move the Iroquois tribes west, and had pinpointed the
territory in the vicinity of Green Bay as ideal for the Indian relocation. 5 David Ogden
was later elected to the U.S. House of Representatives office in 1818. During his tenure
as a Representative of New York, Ogden used his affluence to persuade the Secretary of
War, John C. Calhoun, to relocate the Oneida Indians and the other Iroquois bands
west.6
The opinions and advice of the Episcopalian Missionary Eleazer Williams cajoled
the Oneida Indians toward western relocation. In 1816, Eleazer Williams visited the Six
Nations of the Iroquois; the Oneida Indians were particularly cordial to his visit. After
taking observations of the living practices of the Oneida Indians, Williams went to New
York City to seek the blessing of the Episcopal Church to become an Episcopal
missionary to for the Oneida Indians. The bishop quickly fell into accordance with
Williams’ plan for Christianization and commissioned Williams as Catechist and Lay
Reader to the Oneida Indians.7
Eleazer Williams was a strong orator, and speaking a fluent and well understood
Mohawk, won favor with a faction of the Oneida tribe. On his return to Oneida territory,
Williams used his position to combat the high level of paganism amongst the tribe; in
5
Albert Gallatin Ellis. “Advent of the New York Indians into Wisconsin.” Collections of the State Historical
Society of Wisconsin, Volume 2 1903. 415-516.
6
Reginald Horsman. “The Origins of Oneida Removal to Wisconsin.” 58.
7
Albert Gallatin Ellis. “Advent of the New York Indians into Wisconsin.” 419.
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1816, four fifths of the Oneida were pagan.8 Williams won favor with a faction of the
Oneida who converted to the Episcopal faith. This political faction became known as
the First Christian Party. The First Christian Party centered on two issues, adherence to
Episcopal branch of Christianity, and a strong proponent of an exodus out of New York
State.9
With his tribal status as religious leader, Williams began to promulgate allusions
of grandeur of a unified Iroquois Nation in the territories of the west to Oneida
tribesmen. Williams ascertained the new Iroquois nation would be a unification of
cantons under a single Federal head. According to Williams’ testament to the Oneida
Indians, the Federal level of the Iroquois Nation would be as grand and comparable to
the government of the United States, complete with military, religious, and civic
branches of government. Williams succeeded in convincing four of the five young
hereditary Oneida chiefs in to joining his cause. Overall, Eleazer Williams’ message
resounded with the younger tribal leaders and was rejected by the older generations.
Yet with the approval of the younger generation, Williams continued in his attempt to
create an Iroquois Nation in the western vicinity of the United States.10
During the month of June 1821, Williams and an Iroquois delegation traveled
west to survey the land west of Lake Michigan. The delegation was primarily composed
of official tribal delegates representing the Oneida and Stockbridge Indians, only
unofficial delegates from the other Six Nations accompanied the party. The Stockbridge
8
Ibid.
Reginald Horsman. “The Origins of Oneida Removal to Wisconsin.” 59.
10
Albert Gallatin Ellis. “Advent of the New York Indians into Wisconsin.”, 419-421.
9
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Indians, comprised of the remaining survivors of the Mohicans and other New England
Indian bands, lived on a small piece of the Oneida reservation in New York State. The
Stockbridge Indians were strong advocates for relocation west in order to expand their
territorial holdings. In August 1821, the delegation managed to obtain a small cession of
land on the Fox River from the Menominee and Winnebago tribes. This small territory
was about four miles in width and was centered on modern day Little Chute.11
On their return to the Oneida reservation in New York State, the First Christian
Party received heavy opposition from the Second Christian Party, and the Pagan Party.
Both factions strongly opposed removal to the west. The other tribes of the Six Nations
of the Iroquois concurred with the opinion of the Second Christian Party and the Pagan
Party, and adamantly opposed removal or relocation. Red Jacket, the great Seneca
orator and spokesmen of the Seneca Pagan Party, took on a prominent oppositional role
against Iroquois relocation.12 In a letter from Secretary Calhoun to Ogden, Calhoun
expressed the opposition of Red Jacket against removal: “and declared it his intention to
live and die on the lands he now occupies.”13
11
Judy Cornelius, “Eleazar Williams” The Oneida Indian Experience; Two Prospectives, eds. Jack Campisi
and Laurence M. Hauptman (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1988), 148.
12
Reginald Horsman, “The Origins of Oneida Removal.” 63.
13
Ibid, 65.
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14
Despite strong opposition, the First Christian Party under the leadership of
Eleazer Williams continued their efforts toward permanent relocation to the territory in
the vicinity of Green Bay. In the winter of 1822 and 1823, the First Christian Party
relocated to the territory ceded to them on the Fox River. By 1825, the number of
Oneidas living in Wisconsin had reached 150 inhabitants, all adherents to the Episcopal
Faith.15
While Williams was in Wisconsin, the Second Christian Party had converted to
Methodism by a successful Methodist mission. To signify their ideological shift, the
Second Christian Party renamed themselves as the Orchard Party. The newly created
Orchard Party soon reversed their prior opinion on relocation to Wisconsin. In 1830,
members of the Orchard Party began to immigrate to the Fox River area, and from 1833
14
Map of Oneida Immigration. Hauptman, Laurence M, and L. Gordon McLester III eds. The Oneida
Indian Journey; From New York to Wisconsin 1784-1860, 54.
15
Reginald Horsman, “The Wisconsin Oneida in the Preallotment Years.” The Oneida Indian Experience;
Two Prospectives, eds. Jack Campisi and Laurence M. Hauptman (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University
Press, 1988), 67.
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lived on territory ceded to them near Green Bay called Duck Creek. By 1838, there were
654 Oneidas living on the reservation. Immigration of Oneidas continued to the
Wisconsin reservation from both New York and Canada for the next fifty years.16
The territory of the Wisconsin Oneidas was further limited with a treaty
brokered on May 3, 1838. The 1838 Treaty declared: “From the foregoing cession there
shall be reserved to the said Indians to be held as other Indian lands are held a tract of
land containing one hundred (100) acres, for each individual, and the lines of which shall
be so run as to include all their settlements and improvements in the vicinity of Green
Bay.”17 As experienced by the Oneida Indians before in New York State, Wisconsin was
also experiencing an influx of immigrants, who required farmland and sought to harvest
lumber. Americans needed the land of the Oneida Indians for a second time. Ultimately,
the Wisconsin Oneidas were reserved 65,436 acres from the 1838 treaty, officially
creating the Oneida Indian Reservation.
During the rest of the mid-nineteenth century, the politics of faction overtook
the Oneida reservation. Initially the faction between the Oneida reflected the religious
division of the reservation. The Episcopalian First Christian Party and the Methodist
Orchard Party settled areas of the reservation. The Episcopalians settled upstream
along Duck Creek while the Methodists settled downstream. Intermarriage between
the Methodists and the Episcopalians was frowned upon by both sides. The two
factions developed stereotypical insults for each other. The Southern Methodists were
considered to be hard-working but too rooted in Pagan beliefs, while the Northern
16
17
Reginal Horsman “The Origins of Oneida Removal to Wisconsin, 1814-1822.” 65.
Treaty with the Oneida, February 3, 1383, 7 Stat. 566.
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Episcopalians “tried to act like whites too much” and “forgot they are Indian like the rest
of us.”18
The Age of Allotment
The Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887 stipulated that the land on Indian
reservations would be divided up amongst tribal members. The act sought to achieve a
privatization of Indian reservations and served as a mechanism to assimilate American
Indians into mainstream society. The Dawes Act granted allotments of land to each
family living on the reservation. The size of each allotment was dependent and
proportional to the size of each family. A stipulation in the act decreed that the titles of
the land allotted to Indians were to be held in a trust for twenty-five years by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs. During the trust-ownership, American Indians only had the
freedom to decide the use for the land, but not the freedom to sell or mortgage the
property. After the trust period expired American Indians were granted complete title
to their land. 19
The trust period of Oneida allotments was scheduled to end in 1917; however
the Indian Affairs Appropriations Act of 1906 escalated the process. The Appropriations
Act of 1906 allowed the Secretary of the Interior “to issue a patent in fee to any Indian
of the Oneida reservation in Wisconsin for the lands heretofore allotted him, and the
issuance of such patent shall operate as a removal of all restrictions as to the sale,
18
Jack Campasi, “The Wisconsin Oneidas between Disasters.” The Oneida Indian Experience; Two
Prospectives, eds. Jack Campisi and Laurence M. Hauptman (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University
Press, 1988), 67
19
Laurence M. Hauptman and Jack Campisi, “Talking Back: The Oneida Language and Folklore Project,
1938-1941,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 125.6 (1981): 441
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taxation and alienation of lands so patented.”20 As a result, the trust period for most
allottees immediately came to an end on the Oneida reservation; bringing a wave of
change to the Oneida reservation.
The end of the trust period of Oneida allotments signaled an onset of outside
land speculators looking to gain land now in the ownership of uneducated and destitute
Oneida Indians. Land speculators often resorted to unethical schemes to gain the
allotted property of the Oneida Indians. In some instances land speculators worked in
collusion with corrupt Indian agents and Oneida Indians as well. Greedy land
speculators encouraged the Oneida Indians to fall into debt and mortgage their
properties to purchase superfluous items such as musical instruments, unneeded
livestock, and automobiles. Some swindlers used direct methods to achieve land deeds.
In one case a land speculator brought an Oneida family into town, and while the wife
was out shopping, the land speculator brought the husband to the tavern. Once the
Oneida man was drunk, the land speculator would cajole him into signing over the
property deed.21
Oneida Indians who collaborated with the “crooked land sharks” became known
as “spotters.” Spotters came from the Episcopalian faction of the Oneida tribe, all were
graduates of the Oneida Indian boarding schools. On Saturdays known as “injun day”
day to the spotters because it was the day that the Oneida Indians traditionally went
into town to buy supplies and visit the tavern, spotters would await the arrival of
20
James Oberly, “The Dawes Act on The Oneida Indian Reservation of Wisconsin,” The Oneida and the
Age of Allotment, 1860-1920, (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006) 193
21
Laurence M. Hauptman and Jack Campisi, “Talking Back: The Oneida Language and Folklore Project” 441.
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unsuspecting Oneida Indians. The spotters received “a big roll of money so they could
treat their prospective victims with intoxicating liquor,” from their collaborating land
speculator.22 As Oneida Indian Guy Elm attested, once the spotter got an Oneida deed
owner drunk:
“they then told them where they could get a loan on their property, to buy we’ll
say [a] team of horses, or perhaps [a] few cows and also farm implements, or to
buy materials to improve their homes. And still later the automobile caused the
Oneida tribe [to become] landless.”23
Later the spotter, acting as an interpreter, would ask the victim Oneida Indian to sign
the loan contract. “At this stage of [the] game, some times the real estate man would
try to slip the deed along with the rest of the papers to get the Indian’s signature on it
too if possible.”24
In most cases, the land speculators did not need to create a scheme to swindle
land deeds from the Oneidas; they would only have to wait it for the taxation process to
take its course. As a result of the allotment process, the lands now owned by private
Oneida individuals now became subject to local property taxes. The towns of Hobart
and Oneida needed taxation to finance local government institutions. In 1910, the
Town of Oneida enlisted a taxation rate of $2.07 for every $100 of real estate.25 The
property tax was an impossible burden to most Oneida landowners. The Oneida
reservation was absent of jobs resulting in most Oneida Indians lacking an economic
22
Guy Elm, WPA Story, “Property and Loss of Land” The Oneida and the Age of Allotment. 242-243.
Ibid.
24
Ibid.
25
James Oberly, “The Dawes Act and the Oneida Indian Reservation of Wisconsin” The Oneida Indians in
the Age of Allotment, 195.
23
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means to pay the tax. As a result the majority of the allotted land of the Oneida Indians
was lost due to foreclosure.26
The concept of taxation was foreign to the Oneida Indians, so much so that the
Oneida language lacked a word to express the idea: “We used to have lots of horses
and cattle, etc, but when they started to make us pay something every year [a tax], then
we began to get behind. We finally had only ten acres left, when my husband died,”
expressed Rachel Swamp.27 Ida Blackhawk attested, “they [the Oneida] did not know
how to take the taxes,” and that many of the Oneida Indians “did not take it seriously”
and neglected to make payment, only to later find their home and property evicted. 28
Organized political opposition toward the policy of allotment formulated on the
Oneida reservation in 1909 through the Indian Party. The Indian Party, characterized by
their socially conservative mindset, argued the towns of Oneida and Hobart had been
illegally created, and that the county governments of Outagamie and Brown County had
no jurisdiction to tax federally protected Indian lands.29 The Indian Party was in a
staunch conflict with the Indians of the reservation who sought to modernize the tribe
into American society. Many of the members in the progressive epoch of the Oneida
tribe had been boarding school graduates, attesting to the power the institution
asserted on the younger Oneida Indians. Despite the protests of the Indian Party, by
26
Ibid.
Rachel Swamp, WPA Story “Before They Started to Pay Taxes” The Oneida Indians in the Age of
Allotment, 1860-1920. 241.
28
Ida Blackhawk, “Hard Times at Oneida” Oneida Lives. 9-10.
29
Laurence, M Hampton, “The Wisconsin Oneidas and the Federal Competency Commission of 1917,” The
Oneida Indians in the Age of Allotment, 1860-1920, (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press,
2006 ) 202-203. Sadly the Oneidas who heeded the advice of Indian Party, believing that taxation was
illegal also lost their lands to eviction for the failure to pay taxes.
27
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1917 the initial ending of the trust period, over 50,000 acres of the 65,436 acre
reservation had been allotted and lost.30
Out of all the American Indian tribes, the Wisconsin Oneida, along with their
neighbors the Winnebago, suffered the largest losses of land through the allotment
process. While the Oneida and Winnebago tribes lost nearly all of their land during the
early twentieth century, the National Resources Board estimated that almost half of all
Indian allotments nationally had been lost between 1900 and 1934. The prominent
cause for the loss of control of reservation land by American Indians was either the land
was either sold or seized for nonpayment of taxes.31 In the resulting years, over 1,500
allotments of the Oneida reservation were lost. Before the Dawes Act, the Oneida tribe
had controlled a reservation totaling 65,436 acres. By the time of President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt’s election, the Oneida holdings had dwindled to ninety acres owned
collectively and 700 acres owned privately by tribal members. As Guy Elm recollected
by 1940:
“I would say that at the present time the whites own about 99 percent of the
land that was once the original Oneida Reservation and the Oneidas still own
[only] one percent of it. The 99 percent owned by the whites, 75 percent of it
was acquired by means of crooked deals”32
Reports of the Oneida Agency and School from the 1910s provide a descriptive
account of life on the Oneida reservation at the end of allotment. In general it seems
that life on the Oneida reservation was much more agreeable then on other Indian
30
Ibid, 200.
Graham D Taylor, The New Deal and American Indian Tribalism; The Administration of the Indian
Reorganization Act, 1934-45, (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1980) 6.
32
Guy Elm, WPA Story “Property and Loss of Land” The Oneida and the Age of Allotment. 244.
31
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reservations across the United States. The land of the Oneida reservation had economic
viability, and “is well adapted for dairying, and there is ready and profitable market” of
dairy products in towns near the reservation.33
Throughout most of the 1910s, health of the Oneida Indians on the Wisconsin
reservation was listed as “good” or “satisfactory.” In 1918, the Oneida reservation
began to see a drop in the health of the tribe. The 1918 Report contended the Oneida
Indians “had completely abandoned their old ideas as to the treatment of ailments,”
and “the knowledge of the curative values of roots and herbs, upon which they
depended in the primitive days, has been largely lost.” The author laments this fact
because the Oneida Indians had been known “to live well past the century mark” when
they lived in accordance to their old ways.34 The report continued to describe the
problems caused by poor sanitation amongst the Oneida Indians:
“As they began to live more largely in houses, and for a longer period in one
locality, the lack of sanitary surroundings together wit the poverty incident to life
in a new country, and in some cases an over indulgence in stimulants, took a
rather heavy toll, especially from the children and death from tuberculosis and
kindred diseases have been large.”35
Financially, a few Oneida Indians “were quite well-to-do, but the majority are poor as to
worldly goods, lands etc., and rich only in children” declared the 1919 Report of the
33
U.S. Department of Interior. United States Indian Service. Oneida, Wisconsin Annual Report 1917, July
30, 1917.
34
U.S. Department of Interior. United States Indian Service. Oneida, Wisconsin Annual Report 1918, July
25, 1918.
35
Ibid.
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Oneida. The largest economic contribution the Oneida Indians had been “in man power
for the army and navy, the total number being about 140” in World War I. 36
The “Roaring Twenties” and the Great Depression
After the end of World War I, many Americans sought to escape the drudgeries
that the war had impressed upon their lives. Americans looked to escape from the
harsh realties that had become evident after years of fighting a deadly War. To do so,
many Americans embraced a lifestyle full centered in pleasure. The “Roaring Twenties”
in America brought a lifestyle of decadence, full of frequent visits to the speakeasies,
bootlegged liquor, and jazz music for Americans to indulge in. Sadly, the Oneida Indian
tribe, like the other Indian tribes scattered across the United States, did not have the
opportunity to partake in the “Roaring Twenties.” In contrast to mainstream America,
during the 1920s American Indians suffered from a pandemic of poverty.
In 1929, the Merriam Report was publicly released to Congress and the Hoover
Administration. The findings collected in the Merriam Report described the economic
and social living conditions of the American Indians in the 1920s. The findings in the
Merriam Report were not as convivial as the “Roaring Twenties” is historically
remembered. The Merriam Report delivered the harsh reality of the incredibly
impoverished status of the American Indians.
The Merriam Report cited the cause of the poverty amongst the Native
Americans as “the economic basis of the primitive culture of the Indians has been
36
U.S. Department of Interior. United States Indian Service. Oneida, Wisconsin Annual Report 1919,
August 18, 1918.
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largely destroyed by the encroachment of white civilization…. They are by no means yet
adjusted to the new economic and social conditions that confronted them.” 37 The
report continued to blame past government policy and programs that had intended to
support the American Indians, as adversely affecting the American Indians to become
dependent on government assistance:
“Several past policies adopted by the government in dealing with the Indians
have been of a type which, if long continued, would tend to pauperize any race…
The government undertook to feed them and to perform certain services for
them which a normal people do for themselves. The Indians at the onset had to
accept this aid as a matter of necessity, but promptly they came to regard it as a
matter of right… They felt, and many of them still feel, that the government
owes them a living having taken their lands from them, and they are under no
obligation to support themselves. They have thus inevitably developed a pauper
point of view:”38
The abject living conditions of the American Indians of Wisconsin attracted the
empathy of concerned Wisconsinites. These alarmed citizens enfranchised the cause of
the Wisconsin Indians in their struggle against poverty and increased awareness of the
Indian’s quandary through their writings in newspapers and magazines. In 1929, The
Wisconsin Magazine in an effort to increase subscriptions, ran a subscription promotion
advertisement that read, “Privation, Hunger Disease, Misery; These Are the Redman’s
Heritage. Read The Facts About Indian Exploitation In The Wisconsin Magazine.”39 The
advertisement prophesized an ominous future for the Indians of Wisconsin:
“If something is not done very soon for the betterment of the Indian’s living
conditions on reservations throughout the United States these original
37
Ibid, 6.
Ibid, 7.
39
The Wisconsin Magazine, “Privation, Hunger, Disease, Misery Advertisement” Inset. January, 1929.
38
19 | P a g e
Americans will be swept away by disease and the race will become extinct- an
eternal disgrace which white people could never hope to live down.”40
The Wisconsin Magazine asserted that it would run articles germane to the issue of
Native American poverty to help increase awareness, and claimed with “Wide Spread
Publicity On This Important Question Will Accomplish Results.”41
The staff editorial in the 1929 February edition of The Wisconsin Magazine
blasted the current policy towards American Indians enacted by the Federal
Government.
“Uncle Sam, in his capacity of loco parentis to the American Indian, has been a
most thoughtless, heartless, and cruel parent… The Great White Father at
Washington, referring generally to the federal government and specifically to the
Indian Bureau, has been a stupid, selfish, calloused, short-sighted and brutal
stepfather.”42
Contrary to public perception, President Hoover acted quickly to enact the policy
recommendations of the Merriam Report and was resolute to champion the cause of
the destitute American Indian. In the spring of 1929, President Hoover appointed
Charles J. Rhoads as Indian commissioner and Henry Scattergood as assistant
commissioner. Religious Quakers, Rhoads and Scattergood had achieved world
notoriety for their leadership in humanitarian efforts in the reconstruction programs of
Europe after World War I. Although the Great Depression would significantly stress to
the allocation of government funds, the Hoover administration managed to increase
funding to Indian Services from fifteen million dollars in 1928 to twenty-eight million
dollars in 1931. The funding was intended to improve American Indians health,
40
Ibid.
Ibid.
42
“The American Indian, A Duty and a Challenge” in The Wisconsin Magazine February, 1929. 8, 18.
41
20 | P a g e
education, and agricultural production. Sadly the bureaucracy spent the bulk of the
money on extended the size of its employee force, which grew by 300%, rather then
allocate the money for Commissioner Rhoads’ intended purposes. 43 This type of
inefficiency and corruption came to characterize the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the
Hoover administration despite the benign intention of the President and his Quaker
leadership.
The onset of the Great Depression compounded the problems of the poverty
stricken reservation of the Oneida. By 1930, the loss of jobs on both the reservation and
nearby cities embroiled the reservation in economic turmoil. With fewer jobs and more
competition for those that were available, American Indians were often the first to lose
employment. Because of their social status, American Indians were also the least likely
to be hired. Oneida Indians who lived in the cities of Wisconsin, such as Green Bay and
Milwaukee also lost their jobs. With no where else to go, Oneidas who resided in cities
returned to the Oneida reservation. The immigration of jobless tribe members added
further stress to the meager economic resources and available jobs. The population
influx also intensified stress and conflict between family members, resulting in an
onerous time period for the Wisconsin Oneidas both economically and socially. 44
By 1930, the Oneida families who owned acreage lived on a plot of land
averaging ten acres. This figure stood defiant against the results of a farming survey
43
Kenneth R. Philp. John Collier’s Crusade for Indian Reform. (Tuscan, Arizona: University of Arizona
Press, 1977) 93, 96.
44
Robert Ritzenthaler, “The Oneida Indians of Wisconsin,” Bulletin of the Public Museum of the City of
Milwaukee, 19(November, 1950) 14.
21 | P a g e
conducted by the State of Wisconsin. According to the agricultural survey, at least
eighty acres were necessary to sustain a farm economically.45
The testament of Guy Elm, an Oneida Indian who lived in Green Bay, and then
later on the Oneida reservation once the Great Depression was in full swing, captures
the hardships that many Oneida men had to work through, commuting to find any work
that they could:
“We kept getting poorer. We thought that perhaps the times would eventually
get better, but it got worse instead. We finally decided we would have to move
out in the country to save some expenses. So we did, in 1930. I bought an old
house for seventy-five dollars, tore it down, and rebuilt it on my ten acres I
inherited from my father as my share of his estate. My wife and I cut out the
expensives here and there so that we were able to reduce the general expenses
to about half of what we were paying in the city. We went without lots of things
that we were used to having in the city.”46
The Appointment of John Collier
John Collier was born in Atlanta Georgia in 1884. An erudite student, he
graduated Valedictorian from Atlanta High School where he claimed he “learned
nothing.”47 Later, Collier enrolled in Columbia University as a special graduate student
in 1902. At Columbia, John Collier lived the life of a young intellectual, filling his mind
with new and exciting philosophical ideas. Collier accredits Frederick Nietzsche as the
most influential thinker in shaping his own system of thinking. Nietzsche’s concept of
the ‘superman’ greatly appealed to Collier and directed him towards releasing the “yet
45
Ibid.
Interview with Guy Elm (conducted by Morris Swadesh) “Struggling in the Depression,” Oneida Lives,
Herbert Lewis ed. (Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2005) 79.
47
John Collier. From Every Zenith; A Memoir. (Denver, CO: Sage Books, 1963) 34.
46
22 | P a g e
unrealized potential” in himself and others. The writings of William Wordsworth and
Walt Whitman “swiftly overwhelmed my conscious,” 48 and inclined Collier to embark on
a life inline with nature, directing his attention to the lifestyles of American Indians.
Historian Kenneth Philp described the ethos of John Collier: “[He] was a reform
Darwinist and self-made sociologist who argued that man must mold society’s future
through deliberate innovation and individual creativity.”49
In the autumn of 1920, Collier left his wife and three children to live for a year
with the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. The tribal lifestyle of the Pueblo Indians had a
dramatic impact upon Collier. Collier believed the Pueblo Indians’ lifestyle maintained a
communal and cooperative element, and they had managed to be both “communists
and individualist at one and the same time.”50 He viewed the lifestyle of the Pueblo
Indians as the model for American society, because it did not concern itself with
material possessions, but rather sought to achieve beauty, adventure, joy, comradeship,
and a connection with God. 51
Later as Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Collier would attempt to
strengthen tribal relationships of all American tribes to emulate his perception of a
successful communal lifestyle achieved by the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. Collier
contended “the most universal problem of man, is, and has been, throughout his
48
Ibid, 37. In his first year at Columbia, Collier enrolled in a Graduate French Literature class. Collier did
not speak French yet learned the language easily as the class progressed.
49
Kenneth R. Philip, John Collier’s Crusade for Indian Reform, 9-10.
50
Ibid, 3.
51
Ibid, 119.
23 | P a g e
hundred thousand or more years of history, that he is primordially, positively,
undefeatably social.”52
After winning the Presidency, Franklin Roosevelt appointed Harold L. Ickes as the
Secretary of the Interior. Ickes, a progressive “Bull Moose” Republican, was a part of a
small convention called by President Roosevelt to discuss land conservation in his
forthcoming “New Deal.” After the meeting, President Roosevelt asked Ickes to remain
in the room while the other men left the room. Then, after the others had exited,
President Roosevelt dauntlessly declared, “You are my Secretary of the Interior.”53
After Ikes’ appointment, Senator Joe Robinson, the Democratic leader in Senate,
asked Ickes to nominate Edgar Meritt, the Assistant Indian Commissioner from 19131928 to the position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Ickes, who was not particularly
fond of Meritt, thought Collier as a candidate for the position, and encouraged Collier to
submit his name for consideration. On Ickes’ proposal Collier reminisced that “The
Indian Commissioner was apparently to be either Edgar Meritt, a fatal choice, or myself,
a choice which in my own mind was clouted with doubt.”54
John Collier loathed Merritt and described him as “tireless, impetuous, and very
ignorant.” After Collier consulted his son Charles, who insisted that his father was
capable for the position, Collier agreed to Ickes’ request. Shortly after Collier’s consent
to be considered for Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Ickes quickly made up his mind to
his selection for commissioner. Secretary Ickes publicly announced that John Collier
52
Ibid.
Ibid, 170.
54
Ibid.
53
24 | P a g e
would be appointed to the position of Indian Commissioner and that he would not
submit any further nominations to the Senate. 55
Collier’s appointment to Commissioner of Indian affairs sparked controversy in
the United States Senate. Many U.S. Senators of both political parties had reservations
with Collier’s appointment, largely because these senators supported other
assimilationist candidates. An article in the New York Sun articulated the opposition
Collier faced politically. “The puissant Senators, Thomas and Gore of Oklahoma- where
dwell nearly on half of the American Indians – whetted their knives” in opposition to
Collier. “Land, oil and water companies did everything but offer a bounty for his skin,”
and former Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall “used to bark like a coyote at the
mention of his name.”56
President Roosevelt was pivotal in removing opposition to Collier’s appointment
by arranging for a “showdown” conference between Senator Robinson and Secretary
Ickes. Senator Robinson supported Edgar Meritt for the position of Indian
Commissioner. Roosevelt beguiled Robinson into withdrawing his support for Meritt:
“You know what a stubborn man I have in Ickes, and you know the announcement he
has made” declared President Roosevelt to his Democratic subordinate.57 Senator
Robinson prudently complied with his President’s wishes and ended his advocacy of
Merritt.
55
Ibid, 170-171.
“Who’s News Today- A Political Outsider is about to get his Red Man,” in the New York Sun, April 18,
1933. Congressional Record. 73 Congress, 1st Session, 1933. 2102-2103.
57
John Collier, Every Zenith, 170-171. President Roosevelt and John Collier had little direct contact during
their respective offices. Collier wrote “the years after Pearl Harbor I was careful never to take up his time
in anything.” President Roosevelt was immensely confident in the discretion of Secretary Ickes and as the
quote proves, backed his decisions adamantly.
56
25 | P a g e
58
The authoritative words of President Roosevelt echoed throughout the halls of
Congress, and effectively removed any opposition to Collier’s appointment. On April
20th 1933, Collier was approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate. With his appointment,
Collier set to work; he needed to ameliorate political support from both politicians and
Indians alike for the reforms he intended to implement. These intended reforms would
later take the name of the Indian Reorganization Act.
The Hayward Indian Congress
John Collier faced ample criticism and skepticism for his proposed Indian
Reorganization Act from politicians in Washington D.C and American Indians as well. In
an attempt to gain stronger support from the American Indian tribes, the intended
58
“Photograph of John Collier” in Indians at Work, July-August-September 1942.
26 | P a g e
audience of his legislation, Collier embarked on a series of ten Indian Congresses,
between March 2nd and April 24. During these congresses, Collier explained the merits
of the Indian Reorganization Act, and attempted to persuade Indian tribal leaders for
their support of the legislation. 59
Although Collier was not present at the Hayward Congress, the Indian congress
the Oneida attended; Collier had successfully defended the merits of the Indian
Reorganization Act at other Indian congresses in front of more hostile Indian audiences.
At the Plains Congress in Rapid City, South Dakota, on March 2nd 1934, Collier orated
that the new Indian legislation would be one of partnership with the American Indians
rather then government control: “We intend to act in partnership with the Indians and
we are not going to act unless the Indians are willing to go with us.”60 Collier outlined
the two major problems the Indian Reorganization Act moved to resolve: “first, that the
Indians of the United States, including your tribes, have for two lifetimes been steadily
losing their property becoming poorer and poorer on the whole.” and second:
“the Indians of the United States are living under a condition which puts them at
the mercy of the Indian Bureau. The guardianship of the Federal Government
over Indian life, which was intended to be means of making the Indians both
prosperous and free, has been having the opposite effect and has been making
them poor while they were deprived of their freedom.”61
Collier believed the Indian Reorganization Act would alleviate both problems. At Rapid
City, Collier avowed that he was convinced that Indian Reorganization Act would be well
59
Ronald N Satz, “Tell Those Gray Haired Men What They Should Know: The Hayward Indian Congress of
1934.” Wisconsin Magazine of History, Spring, 1994. 199.
60
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Testimony Taken at Rapid City, South Dakota,
March 2, 1934.
61
Ibid.
27 | P a g e
received by all Indians, stating “it is my belief that the Indians of the United States are
going to be practically one hundred percent in agreement before we are done.”62
The final of the ten Indian Congresses took place in Hayward, Wisconsin on April
23rd and 24th, 1934. The congress at Hayward was intended to allow the Bureau of
Indian Affairs to consult on and explain to the Indians of the Great Lakes the merits and
goals of Indian Reorganization Act. Strangely, John Collier did not attend the Indian
congress at Hayward, leaving his assistant William Zimmerman to preside over the
event.63 Collier was busy in Washington preparing for the Indian Reorganization Act to
be introduced to Congress. Amongst the Indians in attendance were eight Oneida tribal
leaders: E. L. Hill, William Skenandore, Junas Schuyler, Agnes Fox, Andrew Beechtree,
Martin F. Wheelock, William Cornelius, and Charles Cornelius.64
William Zimmerman opened the conference at Hayward by delivering a letter
written by President Roosevelt to Representative Howard, the Chair of Indian Affairs in
the House of Representatives, to the Indian audience. The letter summarized and
praised the Indian Reorganization Act, in which Howard was a legislative author. The
words of the President, who was held in the highest regard, carried strongly amongst
62
Ibid, Commissioner Collier’s words would later come to haunt him, as the Indian Reorganization Act was
heavily criticized and rejected by the prominent Indian Tribes such as the Navajo, and the “Five Civilized
Tribes” of Oklahoma. These Indian tribes were heavily assimilated and saw a return to old ways as a path
to enslavement.
64
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Testimony Taken at Hayward Wisconsin, April 23,
1934.
28 | P a g e
the Indians gathered at Hayward. The letter set a mood of acceptance amongst the
Indians for Collier’s proposal:65
“My Dear Mr. Howard: My interest has been attracted to your bill, H. R. 7902,
because of the virile American principles on which it is based. Opportunity for
self-determination for the Indians in handling their property by providing
modern corporate management, participation in local government, a more
liberal educational system through day schools and advanced health measures
are provided in the bill.”66
At Hayward, tribal leaders of the Great Lakes Indian bands expressed their
concern of the government’s intention with the proposed Indian Reorganization Act.
Most of the tribal leaders voiced concern over the future protection of their right to
hunt and take game. Bad River Band delegate Earl Morrison captured the sentiment of
most of the Indians concerned with treaty rights in a passage he addressed to Bureau’s
commission. “Can we ask the [Roosevelt] administration to safeguard our rights as they
were stated in the treaties? If you aren’t going to respect our rights on this question we
can’t put much faith in your promises.”67
At the conclusion of the two day session, the Indians in attendance at the
Hayward Indian Congress came to embrace the Indian Reorganization Act. Support for
Collier’s legislation weighed heavily on the oration skills of General William J. Kershaw, a
Menominee Indian, and a prominent attorney in Wisconsin. The oration of Kershaw
rallied the Indian Leaders of the Great Lakes toward consenting to the “Indian New
65
Ibid.
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Letter of President Roosevelt to Representative
Howard, delivered at Hayward Wisconsin, April 23, 1934.
67
“Indians State Their Case,” in the Ashland Daily Press, April 34, 1934.
66
29 | P a g e
Deal.” Kershaw was quoted by the Ashland Daily News that the Federal Reorganization
Act was “the only hope for the American Indian.”68
The Oneida contingent was decidedly supportive of Collier’s initiatives, and
believed that John Collier was “going to be the Abraham Lincoln to the Indians.”69 At
the conclusion of the second day of the meeting Chief William Skenadore delivered a
resolution to William Zimmerman, the chair of meeting. The resolution contained a
spirit of optimism and hope in the efforts of the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
lavishly praising Commissioner Collier:
We will be forever thankful to you as the new Commissioner of Indian affairs, as
the tried and true friend of the Indians, which they have sorely been in need of
for a century. We have known for many years that you were studying and
fighting hard to bring about a betterment of the conditions of the Indians
throughout the country. And we are hoping and struggling with you so that you
will realize our desires.70
The Oneida Resolution in support of Collier’s actions had been passed on March
14, 1934 unanimously by five hundred Oneida Indians. The text in the resolution
suggests that the Oneidas had been following the actions of Commissioner Collier and
President Roosevelt closely and thoroughly understood the Indian Organization Act.
The preamble of the resolution openly praised President Roosevelt for being
“instrumental in having the Indians to be included in the Emergency Relief and Civil
Works Programs, which relief we have received this winter was surely appreciated by
the Oneidas.” The relief received from New Deal programs, “which relief has never
68
“Indians of Region Considering Their New Opportunity,” in the Ashland Daily Press, April 35, 1934.
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Oneida Resolution delivered by Chief William
Skenandore at Hayward Wisconsin, April 24, 1934. For the complete text of the resolution, consult the
Appendix.
70
Ibid.
69
30 | P a g e
before been accorded to us,” was the only time the Oneida Indians could recollect that
the government had actually provided relief to the reservation. The date the resolution
indicates that the resolution passed was approximately six weeks before the Oneida
delegation had consulted government agents at Hayward.71 Clearly the Oneida
delegation had made up their mind on the Indian Reorganization Act and John Collier
before their attendance of the Hayward Indian Congress.
The Resolution the Oneida Indians delivered at Hayward contained eighteen
points. The eighteen points listed the Oneida Indians’ understanding of the goals of the
Indian Reorganization Act. The subject of the first five points in the resolution dealt
with the problems caused by allotment and the speculative return of these lands to the
Oneida reservation. The Oneida Indians saw the Indian Reorganization Act as a chance
to regain reservation territory:
“1. Due to the destitution of Indians in general, brought about by the General
Allotment Act of 1887,
2. That it is the intention of the new administration to have the Government reassert its obligations and safeguard the Indians from extinction, and their
properties.
3. To stop the divesting of the lands from the Indians.
4. To provide lands for those Indians that have become landless so that they
again can have homes.
5. No more lands to be allotted to individual Indians.”72
Collier continued his pursuit for popular support of the Indian Reorganization Act
by seeking out publicity of his cause on a national level. In a June 10, 1934 letter to the
New York Times, headlined “Our Indian Policy has Definite Aims,” Collier defended his
71
72
Ibid.
Ibid.
31 | P a g e
pending legislation. Collier continued to describe the fallacies in prior Indian policy:
“That policy was a tragic failure. It stamped the Indian as an inferior being whose
person and property could and should be taken.” 73 Collier continued in the letter to
enumerate further reasons justifying need for his legislation, citing the high mortality
and disease rates of Indians and their low per capita incomes. Collier used the specific
example of the per capita family income of Oklahoma Indians of less then 200 dollars
per family as the prototype problem that many American Indians faced.74
Time magazine also wrote a piece on Collier’s Indian Congresses. The article
depicted the legislation and Indian response to the proposed legislation in a positive
connotation. The article included quotes from prominent Indian tribes such as the Sioux,
Navajo, and Blackfoot in adamant support of Collier. “If what is told us is true, this is the
Indian’s salvation. Let us call on the Great Spirit to make it so” declared Rides-at-theDoor of the Blackfoot. Edward Quick Bear of the Rosebud Sioux stated, “The old way
leads to the end of the trail. We can lose nothing by trying the new way.”75 Now with
the perceived support of the American Indians, and perhaps most importantly the
mandate of confidence from President Roosevelt, the position of Collier’s prized Indian
Reorganization Act was strengthened as it went to the Congress to be voted on.
The Creation of Indian Reorganization Act and Indian New Deal
73
John Collier, “Commissioner Collier Explains Why Legislation Pending in Congress is Needed” in The New
York Times, June 10th 1934.
74
Ibid.
75
“Red Man’s Burden” in Time Magazine, Monday June 25th, 1934.
32 | P a g e
The Indian Reorganization Act’s formal legislative title is the Wheeler-Howard
Act, named after Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana, the Democratic chairman of
the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and Representative Edgar Howard of Nebraska,
the Democratic chairman of the Senate and House Committees on Indian Affairs. Under
the direction of these two Democratic legislators, the committees of Congress would
alter Commissioner Collier’s premonition of the Indian Reorganization Act.
In Congressional Committee, the Wheeler-Howard Act went under strong
scrutiny by the Congress. Certain aspects of Collier’s original proposal had been omitted.
Collier had intended for the Department of the Interior to have a strong ability to
acquire allotted lands for the purpose of tribal consolidation. The strength of this ability
was heavily diluted by the Congress while in committee. In addition, Indian tribes were
denied the power to gain sovereignty over heirship lands, and the creation of a judicial
court to arbitrate between Indian tribes and the government was omitted. Collier
would later lament these loses as fundamental causes for some of the failures of the
Indian Reorganization Act, describing the loss as “a major disaster to the Indians, the
Indian Service, and the program.”76
Debate on the Wheeler-Howard Act began in the house on June 15th, 1934. The
debate was lead by its namesake Representative Howard. The bill passed the Congress
with surprisingly little resistance, resulting with a vote of 258 in favor and 88 opposed.
The final Wheeler-Howard Bill lacked the vested power that Collier believed was needed
to enact the Indian reform. The passed bill “makes everything optional with the Indians,
76
Graham Taylor. The New Deal and American Indian Tribalism, 28.
33 | P a g e
whereas the original bill reposed exclusively on mandatory provisions” declared
Representative Ayers of Montana during the debate.77
Finally on June 18 1934 the Wheeler-Howard Act was signed into law by
President Roosevelt. The process of returning land to the rule of tribal sovereignty
remained the focal point of the legislation. The first section of the legislation prescribed:
“That hereafter no land of any Indian reservation, created or set apart by treaty of
agreement with the Indians, Act of Congress, Executive order, purchase or otherwise
shall be allotted in severalty to any Indian,”78 officially ending the policy of allotment
that had inflicted a checkerboard plague of land ownership amongst the Indian
reservations of the nation, and had nearly eliminated the holdings of the Oneida Indians.
Next in the act were stipulations that dealt with the returning of property holdings to
Indian tribes. Section three embedded the Secretary of the Interior with the power
“restore to tribal ownership the remaining surplus lands of any Indian reservation
heretofore opened, or authorized to be open to sale, or any other form of disposal by
Presidential proclamation, or by any of the public-land laws of the United States.”
Section five of the act appropriated two million dollars a year for the acquisition of lands
for Indian tribal ownership, and section six allocated ten million dollars for the creation
of a credit fund established to provide loans to finance tribal economic activity. 79
The final sections of the Indian Reorganization Act dealt with the creation of
tribal governments. The creation of tribal governments, outlined in section sixteen,
77
Congressional Record. 73 Congress, 2nd Session, 1933. 12165.
The Indian Reorganization Act, (Public--NO.383--73D Congress S. 3645) June 18, 1934.
79
Ibid.
78
34 | P a g e
decreed: “Any Indian tribe or tribes, residing on the same reservation, shall have the
right to organize for its common welfare, and may adopt an appropriate constitution
and bylaws, which shall become effective when ratified by a majority vote of the adult
members of the tribe.”80 Section sixteen called for a political referendum of each tribe
on the question of whether or not adopt a constitution, and mandated a time period of
one year, later extended to two years as a deadline for the adoption of a constitution.81
Commissioner Collier was optimistic to the prospects of the Indian Reorganization Act
and wrote of his intention for the legislation in his first report as Commissioner of Indian
Affairs:
“We are now at work developing a policy which we believe to be broad enough
and sound enough to achieve, if continued, the purpose for which the Indian
Service has always worked- The Indian’s adjustment to his new world and a
termination of his “problem.” That policy is based on two ideas- organization
and a fuller use of land. Out of organization will come greater participation in
the management of property and domestic affairs; and out of land use, which
contemplates the purchase of land for those now landless to carry on operations,
will come better living conditions.”82
With the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act, Collier directed his attentions
towards utilizing other New Deal programs to benefit American Indians. The services of
other New Deal programs in collaboration with the Indian Reorganization Act
collectively became known as the Indian New Deal.
80
Ibid.
Ibid.
82
U.S. Department of the Interior. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
1933-1938, 248. Collier uses the word problem deceptively in his report. Assimilation was still the goal
of American Indian policy of many politicians, to them “problem” meant the failure of Indians to integrate
into society, while to Collier “problem” meant the problems that are facing the Indians from practicing
their tribal way of life.
81
35 | P a g e
John Collier worked to utilize other New Deal programs for the betterment of
American Indians. The first federal agency Commissioner Collier worked to include
American Indians into was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a government program
established in 1933 to put the nation’s unemployed to work. The CCC generally worked
on the construction and maintenance of public buildings and utilities. Collier advocated
that a separate program of the CCC be developed for American Indians, because he
believed that Indians work better in communal groups. President Roosevelt and
Congress heeding Collier’s request, and in 1933, $5,875,000 was allocated for Indian
conservation programs under the auspices of the CCC. Most programs under the CCC
were planned in the states of Arizona, Oklahoma, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota,
and Washington.83
CCC funds also financed the publication of Indians at Work, John Collier’s bimonthly magazine. Indians at Work sought to stimulate conservation and economic
interest in its reader and provided an avenue for open discussion on issues pertaining to
Indian Affairs. The magazine was popular during the 1930s and 1940s, boasting a
circulation of 12,000 subscribers.84
A bureaucratic craftsman, Collier continued to mold existing federal programs to
serve the American Indian. Collier convinced his political alley, Henry A. Wallace, the
secretary of agriculture, to allocate $800,000 for the purchase of livestock to establish
animal herds amongst the Indian tribes. Indians were also included under the Federal
Energy Relief Administration, a program which allocated a half-billion dollars to state
83
84
Kenneth Philip, John Collier’s Crusade for Indian Reform, 120-121.
Ibid, 122.
36 | P a g e
and city governments for relief purposes. The Civil Works Administration and the Public
Works Administration agencies employed thousands of Indians in the construction and
maintenance of public buildings. The CWA employed 4,423 Indians in the winter of
2004 to repair government and tribal buildings on reservations, while the PWA focused
on the construction of public works. With its large budget of $3.3 billon dollars, the
PWA brought many American Indians into employment during the harsh times of the
Great Depression.85
As the Great Depression stooped in America for yet another year, in 1934,
Congress passed another further relief measure, the Emergency Relief Appropriations
Act. The act allowed President Roosevelt to spend an additional five billion dollars for
relief projects. Collier was quick to request fifteen million dollars of the Energy Relief
Appropriations Act be reserved for projects affecting American Indians. Collier was
again successful in his plea, and American Indians were included in the Works Progress
Administration. The WPA would employee over 10,700 Indians throughout the
program’s history.86
Results on the Oneida Reservation
One of the primary goals of the Indian Reorganization Act was to eliminate the
system of land allotment and to help American Indian tribes rebuild their land holdings.
Sadly, the Indian Reorganization Act did not reach its goal of returning property to tribal
control on a massive scale, largely due to lack of funding. The Indian Reorganization Act
85
86
Ibid, 123-124.
Ibid, 125.
37 | P a g e
appropriated a million dollars per fiscal year for the acquisition of land for Indian tribes.
The purchasing of territory for the American Indian tribes began in 1936, but by 1938
the one million dollar budget for the acquisition of land was slashed in half to only five
hundred thousand dollars.87 The budget for the acquisition of new Indian territory
would never recover and soon would be forgotten as the increasing fiscal demands of
World War II took precedent.
In 1933, American Indian territorial holdings in the United States lingered to only
49,000,000 acres, “much of it waste and desert.” By 1938 American Indian landholdings
totaled to 51,540,307 acres, resulting in a net gain of only 2,540,307 acres for American
Indians.88 Even these minute territorial gains are misguiding to the actual effectiveness
of the Indian Reorganization Act toward the purchasing of new lands. Over half of the
land acquired was drawn from the Public Domain. In addition, reservations that
suffered from extensive allotment, did not receive assistance. Over forty-three percent
of the land granted back to Indian control was located in the states of Nevada and
Arizona, rather than in the reservations that had suffered extensively from allotment,
which the Wisconsin Oneida reservation would qualify under.89
The Oneida Indians received 1,200 acres under the Indian Reorganization Act for
the reestablishment of a communal reservation. Private home ownership also increased
marginally for the Oneida Indians of Wisconsin; largely through the auspices of loan
87
U.S. Department of the Interior. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
1933-1938. 211.
88
Ibid.
89
Graham Taylor, The New Deal and American Indian Tribalism. 123.
38 | P a g e
programs of the New Deal.90 Mrs. James Skenadore, an Oneida living on the reservation
during the Great Depression, attributed her survival during the distressed time period
and proceeding years to New Deal policy. According to her testament, without New
Deal assistance the Skenadores would not have been able to afford a proper home.
“We appreciate a lot getting a chance to own a place this way because if we
were to pay cash for a place like this we certainly would never own a home. The
New Deal is certainly a good organization for us poor people. Before we got this
place we were paying around five dollars per month, but there was no sign of
ever owning the place even if we lived on the place for a hundred years. And
here we have a new house, a good drilled well, and are paying only five dollars
per month, and the principal is getting smaller every payment.”91
Mary Hill an Oneida who lived continuously on the reservation affirmed the
positive effects brought by the Indian Reorganization Act and the Indian New Deal. Like
Mrs. Skenadore, Mary Hill avowed that without the New Deal housing program, the Hills
would have remained living in desolate conditions. Deduced from her testament, it
seems that life was still quite difficult for the Hill family, yet the Indian New Deal did
remove the Hill family from the destitution of rent and brought the prospects of building
a new home, something unthinkable of, in the decades prior.
“Early this spring we moved into a little shack we are now allotted on New Deal
land. We managed to squeeze into the little place just so we do live in a place
that we can call our own and stop paying rent. And since the place is so small
and the older children wanted to work out and make money I told them to do so,
but I will expect ten dollars from each one of you this fall, as the materials for a
new house we are putting up will have to be part paid and it is a benefit for
every one of us… We borrowed $350 to buy the house material, and we are
putting it up ourselves.”92
90
Robert Ritzenthaler, Oneida Indians of Wisconsin. 15.
Interview with Mrs. John Skendore (conducted by Morris Swadesh) July 2, 1941, Oneida Lives, 128.
92
Interview with Mary Hill (conducted by John Skenandore) June 25, 1941, Oneida Lives, p. 123.
91
39 | P a g e
Oneida Indian William Cornelius declared that the Indian New Deal was the first
proposed government legislation to actually work as intended and it did not suffer from
massive corruption, which was the precedent in interaction between the Oneida Indians
and the Federal government until the onset of the Indian New Deal.
“At one time my father was telling of how the government sent farm machinery
and all kinds of tools to the Oneidas to be distributed to them by the chiefs. All
the chiefs got machinery like binders and mowers and cultivators, and some of
this went to the relatives of the chiefs. If a poor man who was not a relative
came along he got a hoe or an ax or a corn knife, which may be worth not more
then a dollar, but the chiefs and their relatives got over a hundred dollars’ worth
of machinery each. The only time this did not happen is now when the New Deal
started to give out land to Oneidas. It seemed that it was given to anyone who
really wanted it, so they applied for it first. It is going just as the names have
been taken down. This is the best it has ever been done.”93
Wilson Cornelius continued to discuss how the democratic institutions instilled in
the Oneida community as a result of the Indian Reorganization Act prevented a
tyrannical tribal leader from ascending to control of the New Deal housing allotments,
providing evidence of the intangible effects that the Indian Reorganization Act had
ingrained into the Oneida community.
“The man who was the chairman was going to work that [corrupt] way and
everybody caught on to it. He gave land to his brothers and other relatives and
built houses for them, but after the election another man was elected for the
office of chairman and new directors were elected so everything took a change.
The new officers took the list of applicants, the first come, first served. It made
no difference if he was related or not. He was given the land and a house was
started for him. Everyone seems to be satisfied the way things are going.” 94
Although the testaments recorded in the WPA Language Project suggest that
some Oneida Indians received land through the Indian New Deal, many Oneida Indians
93
94
Interview with Wilson Cornelius (conducted by Stadler King) June 17, 1941, Oneida Lives, p. 122
Ibid, 122-123.
40 | P a g e
remained landless. A 1942 report of the Oneida Tribal Council outlines the actual reality
of Oneida land ownership: “There are 92 applications for land, totaling 5,000 acres.
There are eight families assigned land during the past year. We wish to help everybody
but what can we do when there is no land to assign.”95
The Indian New Deal brought marginal economic opportunity to women. Classes
in native beadwork and basketry funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs encouraged
Oneida women to learn an economic skill and to return to tribal customs lost with time.
In a 1938 article, the Milwaukee Journal covered the creation of a craft program on the
Oneida reservation and depicted a scenario of cultural alarm. “Instruction in Indian
craftsmanship is necessary because the present group of Oneidas, little more than 100
years after their ancestors left New York State to settle in the fertile valley bordering the
Fox River, comprise a “lost generation” in the tribal arts and crafts.”96 The article
continued to provide additional evidence to thematically emphasize the extent of the
loss of artesian customs:
“Indian agents were recently forced to search for an Oneida familiar with the
construction of the cornhusk dolls, long the favorites of Oneida children… Here
and there in this village are women who continued the work of tribal
craftsmanship. The government now depends upon these few to spread their
knowledge.”97
Finally, the article stressed the importance of the New Deal program to its American
audience: “If the white man’s ways made the Oneida a better farmer, housekeeper and
95
Oscar Hobart Archiquette, “Report and Speech at General Tribal Council” at Epworth Hall, August 20th
1941. Oneida Lives, 389.
96
“Indian Craft Is Revived for a ‘Lost Generation;’ Oneidas Study Forgotten Art” in the Milwaukee Journal,
April 3, 1938.
97
Ibid.
41 | P a g e
citizen, they probably made him a worse Indian. The arts and crafts program is an
attempt to give what is Indian back to the Indians.”98
The Works Progress Administration’s Oneida Language and Folklore Project
brought not only economic opportunity to the reservation but also spurred a cultural
resurgence. The Oneida Language and Folklore project was the idea of Morris Swadesh
in 1938. Swadish was a professor at the University of Wisconsin in linguistics,
specializing in American Indian Languages. Swadish conceived of the idea in 1938 and
he later applied for funding for the project through the Works Progress Administration.
The project began in February, 1939 and lasted until 1942. The WPA Writers Project
hired fifteen Oneida Indians to record stories and accounts of tribal members, and
translate and write the stories in the Oneida language.99 Pictured below is the staff of
the WPA Writers Project.
98
Ibid.
Floyd Lounsbury, “Recollections of the Works Progress Administration’s Oneida Language and Folklore
Project” The Oneida Indian Experience, Two Perspectives. 131-132.
99
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100
With the onset of the Great Depression, Oneida Indians came to rely on
government’s programs for economic sustenance. In 1933, the Oneida Indians received
their first financial assistance from the government, a $2,000 check. The next year the
Oneida Indians received a herd of 1,500 sheep through the Federal Relief Corporation
Program. In 1935, the Federal government financed a building repair project on the
reservation, in which 169 buildings were renovated on the reservation, at a cost of
$12,501.98. Many Oneidas received employment through the CCC and WPA programs;
two hundred Oneida were employed in the Writers Project and construction of a damn
in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. By 1939, 1,300 out of the 1,500 of the Oneida Indians on the
Wisconsin reservation received some type of government aid. 101
100
“Photograph of the Workers of the Oneida WPA Writers Project,” in The Oneida Indians of Wisconsin.
15.
101
Robert Ritzenthaler, Oneida Indians of Wisconsin, 14-15.
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Politically, the Wisconsin Oneida followed the stipulations and
recommendations of the Indian Reorganization Act adamantly and worked to adopt a
tribal constitution. The creation of the constitution was a duty performed by Oneida
tribal elders in collaboration with Indian agents. The Oneidas’ constitutional proposal
was approved by the Secretary of the Interior Ickes on October 14, 1936. Secretary
Ickes’ approval denoted the clearance of political hurdles before the constitution could
be voted on and ratified by members of the Oneida tribe. The constitution was easily
adopted on November 14, 1936 with a vote of 790 in favor and only 16 opposed. The
voting total also met the stipulation that at least thirty percent of all eligible voters must
participate in the ratification process.102 The high approval rating indicates that the
opinion of the Oneida Indians toward the legislation was still as adamant as it was
during Collier’s Indian congress at Hayward years earlier.
The constitution drafted by the Oneida Indian tribe was an austere document,
simple and short. Included in the document were five articles. The first article defined
the territory of the Oneida reservation and left the door open to the expanse of
reservation stipulating the tribe’s jurisdiction “to such other lands as may be hereafter
added thereto within.” The second article defined Oneida tribal membership and
decreed that membership would be given to existing tribal members and “any
descendant of a member of the tribe who is of at least one-quarter Indian blood.”103
102
United States Department of the Interior. Constitution and By-Laws for the Oneida Tribe of Indians of
Wisconsin. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Publishing Office, 1937.
103
Ibid.
44 | P a g e
The third and forth articles created the general tribal council of the Oneida tribe.
The tribal council was allocated the powers to perform legislative, executive, and judicial
acts. Amongst its substantive diverse powers were to “To negotiate with the Federal,
State, and local governments… manage all economic affairs and enterprises of the
Oneida tribe of Wisconsin,” and to “To promulgate and enforce ordinances” to maintain
order on the reservation.”104
The constitution was clear to stipulate one action that the tribal council could
never embark upon, the selling of tribal lands. Article VI, Section I stipulated that the
tribal council must “veto any sale, disposition, lease or encumbrance of tribal lands,
interests in lands, or other tribal assets of the tribe.”105 The Oneida made sure in their
constitution that they would never repeat the loss of lands that had occurred to them
under the Dawes Act and the allotment system.
The creation of the institution of tribal government is the Indian Reorganization
Act and John Collier’s most significant accomplishment for improving the livelihood of
American Indians. Before the Indian Reorganization Act, the Oneida were at the mercy
of Bureau of Indian Affairs in political decisions. With the creation of tribal governments
the Oneida Indians now had a direct hand in the future of their tribe.
Evidence suggests that the Oneida Indians were quick to take control of their
own affairs and drafted an economic policy for the reservation in 1942. The Oneida
Indians wanted to encourage the raising of livestock on the reservation, and suggested
the building of a canning factory, limestone quarry, a cooperative store and an
104
105
Ibid.
Ibid.
45 | P a g e
ammunitions plant. The Oneida Indians advocated for an ammunitions plant on the
reservation because the Oneida Indians were natural patriots who had “been in every
war this country has ever had” and “we Oneidas are still ready to defend our country by
one hundred percent.”106 In addition to their patriotism, the Oneidas were attracted to
the high wage of one dollar an hour that defense work provided.107
World War II, the Demise of the Indian New Deal
The onset of World War II dramatically altered the lifestyle for the Oneidas.
Although all Americans from every nationality and walk of life were considerably
affected by the transition into war time America, the American Indians were particularly
so. In addition to burdens imposed on all Americans during the war, including the
conscription of their young men, the movement of women to war time jobs, and the
rationing of materials; American Indians saw the Indian New Deal, their economic
lifeline during the time period, fall into obscurity amongst the priorities of the National
Government. The Indian New Deal, whose momentum was already slowing from
political pressures, was severely under funded during World War II, with most of its
economic programs being eliminated completely.
The Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederation were quick to act against the Axis
politically. On June 12th, 1942, “tribal braves” representing the six nations of Iroquois,
denoted as the “New World’s oldest democracy” by the New York Times, declared war
106
Oscar Hobart Archiquette, “Report and Speech at General Tribal Council” at Epworth Hall, August 20 th
1941. Oneida Lives, 388-389.
107
Forty cents an hour was the prevalent wage for Indian labor in the Green Bay vicinity.
46 | P a g e
against the Axis Powers. The war resolution read, “It is the sentiment of this council
that the Six Nations of Indians declare that a state of war exists between our
Confederacy of Six Nations on the one part and Germany, Italy, Japan and their allies
against whom the United States has declared war, on the other part.” The resolution
cited “the atrocities of the Axis nations” particularly “this merciless slaughter of
mankind upon the part of these enemies of free peoples” as justification for engaging in
war. This was not the first time the Iroquois had joined the United States in declaring an
act of war; in 1917, the Iroquois Confederation had declared war against Germany.108
Collier proclaimed the war decree of the Iroquois to be a victory of tribal
governmental organization, a product of the New Deal. In a press release, Collier
championed the action of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederation and interpreted
the event as the product of the Indian New Deal: “they are simply giving full expression,
in their democratic traditions, to a supreme cause which has upset the internal affairs of
the various members of the historic Confederacy.”109
108
“Chiefs of Iroquois Tribes Vote to Join War; Call on Six Nations Fight Against the Axis” in the New York
Times, June 13, 1942.
109
“Six Nations Declare War on Axis,” Indians at Work, May-June 1942. 17-18.
47 | P a g e
110
Collier proclaimed the war decree as evidence that the American Indians did not
approbate to German propaganda that declared Indians’ minority rights had been
trampled by the United States Government. In reality, the war declaration was a heavily
orchestrated event, with the media and the Bureau of Indian affairs in collaboration. 111
The event was used in the American propaganda effort. The event was meant to foil
extensive reporting that had covered Iroquois resistance to the political draft, which
occurred continuously throughout the war.112
The service of American Indians in the war effort created a warped perception of
American Indians. In World War II, American Indians were seen and denoted for
110
Photograph of the Iroquois declaring war against the Axis, July 18, 1942. Laurence M Hauptman. The
Iroquois Struggle for Survival; World War II to Red Power, (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press,
1986), 7.
111
Ibid, 7-9.
112
Many young men of the Mohawk and Seneca tribes of New York State refused to sign up for the
Selective Service during World War II. The tribes argued that they were not sovereign citizens to the
United States, but rather only to their tribal nation.
48 | P a g e
fighting bravely next to other white Americans. As a result of their bravery a liberal
argument was formed that asked “Why should Indians, who fought so bravely and side
by side with the white man against Hitler and Tojo, now return to the terrible poverty of
segregated reservations?” Many Americans likened the concentration camps of the
Nazis to the American Indian reservations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs public image
continued to spiral downwards, and many Americans saw the Bureau of Indian Affairs as
a despotic institution that American Indians needed to be liberated from. The new
catchwords created as the result of Indian participation now became “emancipation,
federal withdrawal, relocation, and termination.”113
Without government supported programs, American Indian reservations would
retort back to their original economic conditions. Collier was frightfully aware of this
tragic thought. However, as the War took precedent in funding and as the idea of
termination of Indian tribes became popular in Washington, Commissioner Collier
realized the Indian New Deal and his own tenure had come to a conclusion. Collier had
lost the support of his own political party, and his political opponents on both sides of
the aisle attacked his policies. Collier had watched as total Indian Service appropriation
under Senator Wheeler, which had climaxed in 1939 to 46 million dollars; fall to an
allocation of 28 million dollars in 1944, equaling the funding during the years of the
Hoover Administration.114
Disillusioned with politics, and shaken by the government’s action of interning
Japanese American citizens, Collier moved to resign his post as Commissioner in
113
114
Laurence M Hauptman. The Iroquois Struggle for Survival, 2.
Graham D. Taylor, The New Deal and American Indian Tribalism, 165.
49 | P a g e
February of 1945. “Despite reports of pressure which some Congressional sources say
is responsible for Collier’s resignation,” reported the New York Times, “Interior
Department spokesmen insisted that the commissioner was giving up his Federal posts
because of the limitations it put on his Indian Interests.”115
After hearing the news of Collier’s resignation, an ailing President Roosevelt
made no move to retain Collier as commissioner. Instead in a heart felt letter he praised
Collier’s efforts:
“If the Indians generally have come to possess greater self-respect and a
stronger feeling of solidarity as members of the political state to which they
belong, it is because, as Commissioner, you have really believed in the Sermon
on the Mount, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, and have
done what you have to make these symbols by which to live.”116
Collier had served the position of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for twelve years,
the longest term ever served in the office. Looking forward in life, Collier declared the
primary reason for his resignation in his memoirs: “Finally, the time had come to write in
books the philosophy and experience of and with the United States Indians and
Hemispheric Indians; and this writing could not be done within the rush of the Indian
Commission.”117 Yet later in his memoir he sadly reminisced as he watched New Deal
policy overturned by War time politicians who would later rise to power under
President Truman. “President Roosevelt was gone. Harold Ickes resigned from
115
“John Collier to Quit Federal Post” in the New York Times, February 8, 1945.
Letter from President Roosevelt to John Collier, January 22, 1945, Zenith, 304-305.
117
John Collier, Zenith 305.
116
50 | P a g e
government service, as did others of the foremost New Dealers… The New Deal had
ended.”118
Final Remarks
Often ideas work much better in theory then in actually, an inherent truth of the
Indian Reorganization Act. In theory the Indian Reorganization Act provided remedies
to all the ills that had befell the American Indian; land allotment, loss of culture and
tribal practices, and economic poverty. In reality, the Indian Reorganization Act did not
work as initially intended, largely because it was not properly funded, suffered
derailment by political opposition, and because his notion of tribalism was not
concurrent to the ethos of some American Indian tribes. Despite the limited
effectiveness of some of the Indian Reorganization Act’s economic and land efforts; the
tenure of John Collier’s post as Commissioner of Indian Affairs brought a new
philosophy to the Federal Government’s relationship with the Indian tribes.
President Roosevelt final appraisal of Collier’s work enraptured the new ethos
that Collier had brought to Bureau of Indian Affairs. For the first time in her history the
United State’s government had acted honestly and ethically toward the American Indian:
“During the last twelve years, more than ever before, we have tried to impress
upon the Indians that we are indeed Christians; that we not only avow but
practice the qualities of freedom and liberty and opportunity that are explicit in
our institutions. We have come to treat the Indian as a human being, as one
who possesses the dignity and commands the respect of fellow human beings.
In encouraging him to pursue his own life and revive and continue his own
culture, we have added to his worth and dignity. We have opened the window
of his mind to the extent that we have had money with which to do it. We have
118
Ibid. 307
51 | P a g e
improved his medical service, we have enlarged his intellectual program. We
have protected him in his religion and we have added greatly to his political
stature. All of these things have been done under leadership because of your
wisdom and courage.”
--President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to John Collier, January 22, 1945.119
In his memoirs, John Collier recollected his opinion on the significance of the
Indian Reorganization Act. Collier believed that political reorganization had mobilized
Indian tribes to act communally and had conditioned them to fight off the threat of
political termination that lurked over them in the following decade: “I believe, how it
was that, in the seven years after 1950, the hundreds of tribes withstood an implacable,
resourceful assault by successive administrations and Congresses against their Indian
values.”120
In judging the significance of the Indian Reorganization Act on the Wisconsin
Oneidas, this paper endorses Collier’s own assessment of his creation. More then
providing economic opportunity to a downtrodden people, the Indian Reorganization
Act, reorganized the societal structure of the Oneida Indian tribe. Through relocation,
allotment, and contact with European civilizations, the Oneida had lost the communal
bonds that had been inherent in their history for centuries. With the revival of the
Indian tribe, now as a formal institution, once again the Oneida Indians could cooperate
together in dictating their own future.
The success of the reorganization of the Oneida Indians is evident. The War
Resolution against the Axis powers of 1942 indicates that the Oneida Indians had
119
120
Letter from President Roosevelt to John Collier, January 22, 1945.
John Collier, Zenith, 300.
52 | P a g e
effectively mobilized politically through the auspices of the tribe to formulate their own
political opinion. With the shifting opinion of Indian reservations in the 1950s, tribal
termination presented a real threat to the existence of the Oneida Indian tribe of
Wisconsin. The mere existence of the Wisconsin Oneida as a tribe, reinforce the
influence that the Indian Reorganization Act had on the Wisconsin Oneida Indians.
Today the Oneida tribe of Wisconsin is a well organized political entity. The
tribe maintains a profitable casino and offers many social programs funded by gaming
profits. As a result of their financial clout, the Oneida tribe plays a prominent role in
politics of Northeast Wisconsin. Without the Indian Reorganization Act, the Oneidas of
Wisconsin could not have mobilized politically. If the Oneidas had failed to politically
organize, their economic and cultural success of today may have never been realized.
Pictured below is a photograph of the current elected officials of the Oneida
tribal government and members of Oneida Business Committee. The current chair of
the Oneida Indian tribe is Gerald Danforth, pictured second from the right in the first
row. Danforth was elected to the position of chairman in 2005. This is second term of
service as service in the position, his first term occurred from 1999-2002. The vice
chairwomen of the Oneida Indian tribe is Kathy Hughes pictured to the left of Gerald
Danforth. Tribal Secretary Patty Holt, pictured on the far right in the front row, and
Treasurer Mercie Danforth pictured on the far left of the front row, round out the
currently elected officials of the Wisconsin Oneida’s tribal government.
53 | P a g e
121
Today the goals of the Oneida Indian tribe remain much the same as they did at
the onset of the Indian Reorganization Act. Chairman Gerald Danforth has set priorities
for the Oneida Indian tribe. Danforth hopes to initiate growth in Indian gaming
revenues, a continued diversification economically of the Oneida reservation, to
preserve the Oneida Indian language, and to improve health care and education
services to members of the tribe.122
The Indian Reorganization act failed to accomplish many of the goals it sought to
achieve immediately. Yet, the results of the Indian Reorganization Act in 2007 have
produced astounding results for the Wisconsin Oneidas. As a result of John Collier’s
Indian Reorganization Act, American Indians now dictate their own futures rather than
being dependent on the policies of government bureaucrats. Using the current status of
121
Photograph of Oneida Business Committee and Tribal Government. <
http://businesscommittee.oneidanation.org/ > Last Accessed May 15, 2007.
122
“Chairman Gerald (Jerry) L. Danforth.” <
http://businesscommittee.oneidanation.org/?page_id=61&parent_page_id=52 > Last Accessed May 15,
2007.
54 | P a g e
the Wisconsin Oneida Indians in 2007 as a benchmark, it seems the Indian
Reorganization Act was very successful in revitalizing the Wisconsin Oneida Indian tribe
both socially and economically. Truly, the Wisconsin Oneidas at the Hayward Indian
Congress were correct to hail Collier “the Abraham Lincoln of the Indians.”
55 | P a g e
Sources Consulted
Primary Sources
Collier, John. From Every Zenith. Denver, Colorado: Sage Books, 1963.
Congressional Record. 73 Congress, 1st Session, 1933.
________. 73rd Congress, 2nd Session, 1934.
Herbert, Lewis S. and Gordon L McLester. Oneida Lives. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of
Nebraska Press, 2005.
Indians at Work, July-August-September 1942.
________. July-August 1943.
________. May-June 1943.
U.S. Department of the Interior. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Constitution and By-Laws for
the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government
Publishing Office, 1937.
U.S. Department of the Interior. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Report of the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs 1917.
________. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1933-1938.
U.S. Department of Interior. United States Indian Service. Oneida, Wisconsin Annual
Report 1919, August 15th, 1919.
________. Oneida, Wisconsin Annual Report 1919, August 18, 1918.
________. Oneida, Wisconsin Annual Report 1917, July 30, 1917.
U.S. Department of Interior. Bureau of Indian Affairs. Testimony Taken at Hayward,
Wisconsin. April 23-24, 1934.
________. Testimony Taken at Rapid City, South Dakota. March 2, 1934.
U.S. Department of the Interior, News Release, June 12, 1942, “Six Nations Declare War
on Axis,” Indians at Work 9 May-June 1942.
56 | P a g e
U.S. Institute for Government Research. Merriam Report: The Problems of Indian
Administration. Washington, D.C.: 1928.
The Indian Reorganization Act, (PUBLIC--NO.383--73D Congress S. 3645) June 18, 1934
The Wisconsin Magazine, January 1929.
_______, February 1929.
Time Magazine, Monday June 25th, 1934.
Treaty with the Oneida, February 3, 1834, 7 Stat. 566.
Newspapers
Ashland Daily Press, April 34, 1934.
Milwaukee Journal, April 3, 1938.
New York Times, 1933-1945.
Websites
Oneida Nation Business Committee. Available from
http://businesscommittee.oneidanation.org/; Internet, Last Accessed May 16,
2007.
57 | P a g e
Secondary Sources
Campisi, Jack. and Laurence M. Hauptman. “Talking Back: The Oneida Language and Folklore
Project, 1938-1941.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 125.6 (1981): pp.
441-448.
_______. eds. The Oneida Indian Experience: Two Perspectives. Syracuse, New York:
Syracuse University Press, 1988.
Downes, Randolph, C. “A Crusade for Indian Reform, 1922-1934.” The Mississippi Valley
Historical Review, 32.3 December, 1945. 331-345
Ellis, Albert G. “Advent of the New York Indians into Wisconsin.” Collections of the
State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Volume 2 1903.
Hauptman, Laurence M. The Iroquois Struggle for Survival; World War II to Red Power.
Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1986.
________. “The American Indian Federation and the Indian New Deal: A
Reinterpretation,” Pacific Historic Review, 52 no 4 (November, 1983): 378-402.
Hauptman, Laurence M, and L. Gordon McLester III eds. The Oneida Indian Journey;
From New York to Wisconsin 1784-1860. Madison, Wisconsin: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1999.
________. The Oneida Indians in the Age of Allotment, 1860-1920. Norman, Oklahoma:
University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.
Philp, Kenneth, R. John Collier’s Crusade for Indian Reform. Tuscan, Arizona: University
of Arizona Press, 1977.
Satz, Ronald N. ““Tell Those Gray Haired Men What They Should Know”: The Hayward
Indian Congress of 1934.” Wisconsin Magazine of History 77, no. 3 (1994): 196224.
Taylor, Graham D. The New Deal and American Indian Tribalism: The Administration of
the Indian Reorganization Act, 1934-1945. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1980.
Tyler, S. Lymann. A History of Indian Policy, Washington D.C.: United States Bureau of
the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1973.
Ritzenthaler, Robert. “The Oneida Indians of Wisconsin.” Bulletin of the Public Museum of the
City of Milwaukee, 19 (1950): pp 1-55.
58 | P a g e
Appendix
Appendix A
Oneida Resolution Delivered at Hayward, WI, March April 24, 1934
“The Oneida Indians of the Oneida Indian Reservation, in Wisconsin , assembled
in Council at the Parish Hall, Oneida, Wisconsin, March 14, 1934, determined:
Through their chiefs to express our appreciation to the President, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, through our new Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Honorable John Collier.
That we, the Oneida Indians, have felt the spirit of the new deal in the
administration of the affairs of the people of the entire country as being carried out as
intended.
That we will forever be thankful to you as the new Commissioner of Indian
affairs, as the tried and true friend of the Indians, which they have sorely been in need
of for a century. We have known for many years that you were studying and fighting
hard to bring about a betterment of the conditions of the Indians throughout the
country. And we are hoping and struggling with you so that you will realize our desires.
We know it to be a fact that it was you who was instrumental in having the
Indians to be included in the Emergency Relief and Civil Works Programs, which we have
received this winter was surely appreciated by the Oneidas, which relief has never
before been accorded to us.
We believe the best time to encourage a fighter to win, is when he is in the midst
of a battle. And we are with you, as Oneida Indians, in your struggled by giving publicity
to have congress pass the Indian Rights Bill, which you were instrumental in getting
introduced. And should it become a law and a reality, we are sure that, what Abraham
Lincoln was to the colored people, you are going to be the Abraham Lincoln to the
Indians.
We understand the aims and substance of the Indian Rights Bill to be as follows:
1. Due to the destitution of Indians in general, brought about by the General
Allotment Act of 1887.
2. That it is the intention of the new administration to have the Government reassert its obligations and safeguard the Indians from extinction, and their
properties.
3. To stop the divesting of the lands from the Indians.
4. To provide lands for those Indians that have become landless so that they again
can have homes.
5. Extended trust periods not to expire as intended.
6. No more lands to be allotted to individual Indians.
7. No more taxation of Indian lands.
8. Indians nevermore to have their right to sell or mortgage heir lands.
9. Education of Indians as lawyers doctors, nurses, teachers, clerks, engineers, and
other professions at the leading universities, colleges and schools.
10. Provide facilities for reforestation, grazing and farming of Indian lands.
59 | P a g e
11. Transfer authority over to the Indians from the Secretary of the Interior and
Commissioner of Indian affairs, to the Indians for self-determination concerning
their tribal affairs.
12. United States to provide funds and assistance to Indians in building up selfgovernment again.
13. Secretary of Interior to issue charter providing the essentials of self-government,
that of liberty of conscience, worship speech and free speech.
14. United States to build highways, bridges and local churches.
15. Courts to be established for civil and criminal cases.
16. Lawyers to be provided for Indians at all times.
17. Relieve Indians in distress.
18. Indians at liberty to abandon Indian community at any time.
The above proclamation approved unanimously by the five hundred Oneida
Indians assembled in council. Signed March 17, 1934:
Wm. Skenanadore, Presiding Chief Oneida Indians
Chief Richard Sannor
Chief Hipon John
Chief Nelson Skenandoah
Chief William Cornelius
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Appendix B
Letter from President Roosevelt to John Collier, January 22, 1945
My dear Commissioner Collier:
I cannot let you go, however, without saying that you have done an outstanding
job in one of the most important and difficult offices in the Federal Government. One
achievement of my administration in which I shall always take the deepest pride has
been the progress that has been made in connection with our first Americans. I hope
that the selfish exploitation of the Indians is now definitely a thing of the past over
which we may be permitted to draw a veil of silence.
During the last twelve years, more than ever before, we have tried to impress
upon the Indians that we are indeed Christians; that we not only avow but practice the
qualities of freedom and liberty and opportunity that are explicit in our institutions. We
have come to treat the Indian as a human being, as one who possesses the dignity and
commands the respect of fellow human beings. In encouraging him to pursue his own
life and revive and continue his own culture, we have added to his worth and dignity.
We have opened the window of his mind to the extent that we have had money with
which to do it. We have improved his medical service, we have enlarged his intellectual
program. We have protected him in his religion and we have added greatly to his
political stature.
All of these things have been done under leadership because of your wisdom
and courage. It has not been an easy task and you might have been subject to far less
criticism than had been yours if you had been content merely to mark time within the
limits that custom had built up in periods when the feeling was that we should not do
too much for the Indians but rather as little as possible. If the Indians generally have
come to possess greater self-respect and a stronger feeling of solidarity as members of
the political state to which they belong, it is because, as Commissioner, you have really
believed in the Sermon on the Mount, the Declaration of Independence, and the
Constitution, and have done what you have to make these symbols by which to live.
Your contribution to the progress and welfare of the American Indians will never
be forgotten. Your services as an important member of this administration since 1922
will be an inspiration to those who follow you. You have my warmest congratulations
upon a task well done and my hope that, in the future as in the past, even before you
became a member of the administration, you will continue to achieve lasting benefits
for the descendants of those misunderstood and misused human beings who originally
possessed this great land of ours and who were displaced involuntarily, all too often
with a selfish disregard of their right to live their own lives in their own way.
Sincerely yours,
(signed) Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Appendix C
WPA Writer’s Project: Fish Story
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